Destinations of Footprints

Wow, how do I begin to write and explain my evening blessings? In the last couple of months I have been very privileged to reconnect with friends from my school years. Tonight was dinner out locally with two great cheerleaders! They are my cheerleaders and for that I am so grateful. We shared so many things in four hours that seemed to pass so swiftly we realize the need to share more frequently........in whatever manner lives allow us. In our quickly shifting and often very serious conversations, the subject of my little feet came up. I always laugh about my feet because really I only have one and a half feet............nine inches each which is six inches shy of two feet! Maybe that is why I am the way I am?!!! A resident of Lowman Home where my parents now reside, kidded me and still does that my feet were stunted because they had to 'thrive' in the shade of a large bosom.............now how do I keep my balance? Okay, back to serious things...............on the way home I realized that with the help of my friends the cheerleaders, that although they are very little footprints, I have left numerous and well defined footsteps from my journeys. My feet have carried me through many rough and often treacherous travels from one point to another point. Some of them connected and some of them separate from each other. But they are footprints with meanings. They are footprints that tell stories. They are footprints that appear all alone, and some that mingle with other different sized and shaped footprints. When I lost Taylor, our firstborn son, all I had to prove he was real was the tiny footprint from his birth. I never got to see his tiny feet....I loved feeling them kick and experiencing the miracle of life truly inside of me........when I saw him he was wrapped in a soft yellow printed baby blanket and although I was curious, Fred asked me not to unwrap him because he needed to remember him warm and wrapped and 'sleeping' peacefully in his mother's hungering arms. Oh, he was so sweet and so beautiful and so tiny.............and he came from our love. After a short time the nurse came back into my room and off they went. It was the only time we got to look like family from the outside. It was the only time Fred and I spent together with our baby boy. I know this is getting sad and that is not what I intend. The middle chapter of this book is that I had Taylor's tiny footprint. It was proof. I still have it. When we experienced this loss a friend shared with me the Footprints story of walking in the sand and only seeing one set of footprints............why God did you leave me to walk alone? And God answers............Those are my footprints...........I was carrying you. I did the walking and you were not alone. How many times did I, have I turned to these beautifully expressed words that are now so commonly read, displayed in different forms in different places? Countless times!!! Tonight helped me comprehend more fully, more intensely, that our footprints always matter. They may seem insignificant and lost sometimes (perhaps often?) And sometimes, like tonight, footprints cross over and join in with other, different footprints. One set no more significant than another set. While different, they are extremely alike. And when the footprints join that means we are blessed to be walking the same road for that moment. We have company physically walking alongside us. The walk goes faster. The walk seems easier. One step in front of the other; one step beside another. Encouraging, laughing, crying, sharing. And we confirm in one another that indeed when we feel we are the only one making the journey, God is there with us at all times.........we just need reminding that He can and does carry us when we feel abandoned and lost. And when we come to a juncture and meet other footprints, we take note and allow rest and healing for the lonely footprints. Spirits lift, smiles appear, laughter begins, and time stands still. I love it when God blesses our footprints. I am glad each one bears complete individuality, but I especially love it when they mingle so closely together that one set is just like another set and you can't tell one set from the other because they are so closely woven together. God is leaving His footprints right there with us. I thank Him for the footprints you leave on my heart when our destinations merge. Tonight, I thank Him for the footprints of my cheerleaders.........may we share many more sojourns in future moments.